Requiem by Robyn Young

Whew, finally I’ve finished reading the last book (of a trilogy) written by Robyn Young. Not that I’m complaining because I only have good words for this book :-)
For the uninitiated, Robyn took 10years in total to research, compile and write this trilogy.
As mentioned in my earlier blog entries, the trilogy started off with the book entitled Brethren followed by Crusade and this is the last piece of the puzzle.
Initially, I felt daunted when I picked up this book based on the weight and the sheer thickness of it. But, when I read it, the story just flows forth and I felt the connection and irrepressible urge to continue reading it till the end.

In this book entitled “Requiem by Robyn Young”; Will Campbell is back in action again.
But age has crept up and he's a matured (see, I used "matured" instead of "old" here :-P) and seasoned warrior back to Europe after their horrific losses to the hands of the Mamluks, which lead to fall of Acre.

Hand picked by his predecessor to lead the clandestine organisation called Anima Templi (established to promote peace between all major religions) within The Knights of Templar, he failed miserably in his assigned tasks when he let his hatred towards King Edward of England go to his head and went fighting for Scotland (alongside William Wallace) instead.

The Templar on the other hand forged an alliance with King Edward to secure a base of their own.
His own estranged daughter, Rose grew lusty and decided to embroil herself in an unlikely affair with King Philip of France and getting pregnant in the process.

That’s not all; Robyn managed to twirl all the conspiracies, murders, revenge and whatnot ranging from assassination of Pope Boniface VIII and Pope Benedict XI; to appointment of Pope Clement V allegedly done by King Philip's implacable minister, Guillaume de Nogaret.

If these intrigues are not intriguing enough, Robyn also infused the eventual downfall of the Knights of Templar and how those warrior monks are tortured to extract confession and burnt at stake in the end.
As for our protagonist, Will Campbell, he plays mostly on supporting role this time and as all good stories go, the protagonist will live happily ever after and it is the same with this book.

Just read the review above and I’m sure you'll notice the complexities of the storyline.
So my review is not complete (not even 1%) as it provides just a small scope within the multilayered complexities.

The beauty is that Robyn managed to infuse historical events with imaginary characters seamlessly.
Thus reading thru this book is like peeking thru historical events unfurling before your very eyes.
Reading historical happenings via novels like this is much palatable than learning thru mundane and boring history books
:-P

No pros and cons needed but I would like to say that this is definitely the best serial I’ve read so far :-)

Go Go Robyn GO!
Btw, pls do leave your comment if you happen to stumble in this blog of mine ya :-P

*for those reading this entry, don't mind me. Sometimes I can be thick-skinned too :-D*


Personal rating: 10 out of 10 (for a beautiful ending on such a beautiful and memorable day :-))

Cons:
1) N/A

Pros:
1) N/A

When I Look At You by Miley Cyrus

Some songs are goose-bump inducing not to mention addictive.
Here I am, updating my blog at 5-plus in the morning cos I can’t get this song out of my beer laden brain (Original Japanese Asahi Super Dry mind you..hehe).

Thanks to the hilarious introduction to this song in the afternoon, in which I literally laughed my @$$ off due to some smart-alec (from Vietnam), who embedded his glamour photo as the album cover :-D (no joke), I’ve been listening to this song for like n-times now.

Not because of Miley Cyrus (I’m serious :-P) but it’s because of the beautifully written lyric!

Wait a minute! Am I insomniac? I hope not :-S

Hope you’ll enjoy the song + the lyrics as much as I do :-)

Lyrics taken from: http://www.elyricsworld.com/when_i_look_at_you_lyrics_miley_cyrus.html





When I Look At You by Miley Cyrus

Everybody needs inspiration,
Everybody needs a soul.
A beautiful melody,
When the night's are long.
Cause there is no guarantee,
That this life is easy.

And when my world is falling apart.
When there's no light to break up the dark,
That's when I, I, I look at you.
When the waves are flooding the shore,
and I can't find my way home anymore.
That's when I, I, I look at you.

When I look at you,
I see forgiveness,
I see the truth.
You love me for who I am,
Like the stars hold the moon,
Right there where they belong.
and I know im not alone.

Yeah when my world is falling apart,
When there's no light to break up the dark,
That's when I, I, I look at you.
When the waves are flooding the shore,
and I can't find my way home anymore,
That's when I, I, I look at you.

You, appear just like a dream to me.
Just like kaleidoscope colors,
That cover me,
All I need,
Every breath that I breathe,
Don't you know you're beautiful!

Yeah

When the waves are flooding the shore,
and I can't find my way home anymore,
That's when I, I, I look at you.
I look at you, Yeah, Woah.
You, appear just like a dream to me.

By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept by Paulo Coelho

Note: This is another novel about spiritual awakening from Paulo Coelho.

As what I’ve mentioned earlier, I bought all published book (at that particular time) from one author and Paulo is one of them. So please bear with me while I try to dissect the intricacies linked to these spiritually filled books.

Supposedly, these kinds of books shouldn’t be read based on the face value. It is supposed to be “understood/misunderstood” and “grilled” until you get the BING moment.

As for me, I don’t dwell too much on such things because it is tiring to analyse (or over-analyse) on certain books to get the isi-isi tersirat.

This book entitled “By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept by Paulo Coelho” (a mouthful mind you, it’s like reading the title with your mouth full of meatballs :-P), is one such novel.

In essence, it is about a scholar named Pilar who’s frustrated by the endless cycles of her life.

This scholar who hasn’t even stepped outside the big bad world to earn money is complaining about endless cycles of her life! BAH!

Before I jump straight to conclusion and analyse in my own perverted way, I shall hold my horses and continue to review this book with an open mind.

PATIENCE, PATIENCE!

Anyway, going back to the story; this Pilar girl got bored with her university life and wanted to seek some greater meaning to her existence within those supposedly endless cycles.

She got her break when all the sudden, her former crush who’s now a handsome and well respected spiritual leader cum miracle worker contacted her.

She saw the chance for her to break free from the cycles and decided to follow him thru his journey via sacred sites in the French Pyrenees.

However, the catch of this journey is that the guy will finally have to choose between her (as lover) and answering his spiritual calling.

This means that the tension of their love, her longings towards him and the feeling of loving but not being loved is constantly played between these two love-birds.

It is with these difficult conditions that the BING moment of the novel came as we discover the divinity and the power of love under such strained condition.

The novel does not have a happy ending because they parted with the guy answering his spiritual calling and Pilar ended up checking into a convent.

I guess this novel’s title depicts Pilar’s sorrow when she is confronted with an unfulfilled love.

So what do I think about this book?

Truth to be told, I don’t remember much about this book or any other books from Paulo.
I had to speed read most of his books before I can pen any review; which is why I don’t dwell too much on one book trying to seek out the hidden meaning and getting headache in the process.
I still need to work to earn bucks for a living u know :-P

On the hindsight, the prospect of experiencing unfulfilled love can be a painful affair and bravo to Paulo on his ability to capture its essence in written words.
And to re-read such novel again after such a long time enables me to fully understand the hidden meaning in its simple but beautiful storyline.


Personal rating: 8 out of 10

Cons:
1) No character development. As with other books from Paulo

Pros:
1) Refer to the comments above :-)

Lunch?

The time is 11.45am sharp.

He stood up to stretch his stiff body and took the opportunity to glance nervously around. He realised with a shock that he is right in the midst of a hive filled with various activities.

There are some who walked to and fro with sense of purpose in their stride, while some stared blankly into their computer screen filled with coloured rows of highlighted numbers.

From far, those minute looking digits and characters look sinisterly like fire ants, the fire ants he used to burn with joss stick back at his kampong house.

Shaking his head to clear off this irrelevant reverie, he sat down with a thud on the somewhat uncomfortable, squeaking chair.

He sighed inwardly and thought of the luck he got so far in securing his current position.

As he turned and stared at his computer screen, he realized that his mind is totally blank and could not comprehend the numbers displayed on the screen. Those stagnated numbers kept on blinking like constant heartbeat, taunting him repeatedly.

He closed his eyes, obscuring his vision momentarily. Despite this, the floating numbers remained in his view, burnt into his mind like a charred emblem. He rubbed his eyes hard, swirling the numbers and saw splitting stars at the back of his eyeballs in the process.

Slowly he reopened his eyes and glanced at the wall clock again. He noticed that the minutes arm nudged slowly but surely, time now showing 11.55am.

He nervously shuffled his feet on the carpeted floor, feeling the carpet’s roughness through the sole of his shiny leather shoes. He silently wished that he could take it off and free his sweaty feet from the confines of his shoes.

Slowly he extended his neck above his cubicle wall like a tortoise emerging from its shell. Again he looked around. The place is much calmer now and the bustle of activities he saw earlier has thinned considerably.

His palms grew wet and clammy with anticipation. He fidgeted on his chair, the squeaking sound now louder as the place grew quieter.

He jolted when he felt someone tapped his shoulder and asked him, “So, how was your first day at work? OK so far? Would you like to join us for lunch?”

With that, he felt a true sense of relieve and happily accepted the lunch offer with a smile on his face.